Opening of new Dahesh exhibition at Palitz Gallery smashing success

February 16, 2011

Edward Aiken, Senior Curator, Program Coordinator, Museum Studies Graduate Program with some of his museum studies graduate students

The Essential Line: Drawings from the Dahesh Museum of Art, the latest exhibition at the Palitz Gallery, stirred a lot of excitement and had the second floor packed with guests. Alumni from SU mingled with fans of the Dahesh Museum, current graduate students in SU’s Museum Studies department, students at the Grand Central Academy of Art and many others.

“The Essential Line” is organized by the Dahesh Museum of Art and Syracuse University while museum studies students had the opportunity to be deeply involved in the curatorial process. The exhibition provides viewers with the first in-depth survey of the Dahesh Museum’s drawing collection, including works by 19th-century art stars like Alma-Tadema, Rosa Bonheur, Leon Bonnat, Alexandre Cabanel, Gustav Doré, Jean-Leon Gerôme, and Lord Leighton among others.

A new visitor to the Palitz Gallery, Alex Mann, an Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow found it to be a beautiful space. “[The exhibition] is very well put together,” says Mann, a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. “It’s a wonderful exhibition for the size of the room and the way it’s being used, so I’m very impressed.”

The exhibition is free and runs through March 24. Exhibition hours are Monday – Saturday 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 pm.